Cara Hirst, 23, was glad that she attended the open evening for postgraduates at UCL because it gave her a better idea of what she could expect on her course.

As an ME sufferer, she was worried about how she would manage the MSc in dental and skeletal bio-archaeology with her illness. However, she was reassured at the open evening when she was offered transport from one building to another in case she needed it.

"I also talked to the lecturers," she says. "It was really nice meeting them. It stopped a lot of my nerves because they were so lovely and friendly."

An added bonus was she met a number of others applying for the same course and was able to hook up with them on Facebook. "All of this made me feel more relaxed," she says.

Taster lectures

Universities are keen to reassure prospective postgraduates by laying on special events for them.

The events usually consist of an academic giving a talk about the course, maybe a taster lecture and access to current students, according to Katie Grocott, UCL's acting graduate marketing manager.

Lancaster University has three events during the year, in November, February and June. The main event in February is concerned with informing postgraduate applicants about the university, its courses and finance, including scholarships and bursaries.

Rebecca Horne, Lancaster's postgraduate student recruitment manager, says it is important for postgraduate research master's students to see the university, particularly if they are going to be full-timers.

Royal Holloway University of London holds two evening events a year on its campus in Egham, Surrey, together with taster sessions in central London. Overseas students from, say, China and India can attend events organised by the university in their own country and there is a lot of material online as well as access to alumni.

Sarah Moss, associate professor in Warwick University's creative-writing programme, emphasises that open days are to provide the extra information that prospective students can't get online. "They are a good place to ask awkward questions like how many of the big-name teachers will you have access to," she says.